Stars at Blue Jackets 02/16/09

I’m getting to be continuing to be a slacker when it comes to recaps. You can’t accuse me of just avoiding the losses, though. I’ve skipped a few great wins, too. That’s how lazy I am.

The Columbus game last night was pretty exciting. Marty stopped 41 shots to keep us in the game. I’m not sure how we gave up that many shots. The second period was spent trying not to get scored on and we hardly spent any time in Columbus’ end. That’s probably part of it.

The Columbus goalie, Chris Steve Mason, stopped a few good chances, but that’s all the Stars had — a few.

Marty kept them in the game long enough to tie it, and then kept them tied until they got to the shootout. He was perfect in the shootout (although a couple of them stayed out on their own), and James Neal had a beautiful shot to win it.

Brad Richards got the first goal less than a minute into the game, which was good, but in the second period, was hit awkwardly from behind and appears to have injured his wrist.

I feel awful for Brad. That has got to hurt, first of all. And it will be no fun for him if he’s out for a long time, after he’s finally become ingrained with the team. I imagine he is pissed.

As for the team, at the very least, it’s going to throw the lines all out of whack. The Three Centers lineup was really working well. Now they’ll have to take one of the ex-centers, like Ott or Lundqvist, off the wing and put him at center.

I don’t think Ott should have his own line. He needs to stay up with Ribeiro and Lehtinen. Maybe Modano could center Brad’s line, but he and James Neal work so well together on his own line.

Toby Petersen could move up to either Brad’s or Modano’s line, but it’s going to be tough, because somebody has to center the fourth line, too. There’s probably going to be more rearranging than just finding a center to replace Brad.

The power play might suffer, too. It was really going well once Brad and Modano were playing the points at the same time. I think Robidas can help there, though, if he gets a lot of time on it.

You know, a couple of games ago, Razor discussed injuries for a minute during the game and pointed out how long it had been since we had a major injury and how that’s part of what’s helping them these days. I immediately thought, “Great. Thanks a lot, Razor.”

The good news is that we’re (for now) alone in fifth place. We’re not tied in points with anybody. Sure, they could all tie us before we play again on Thursday, but let’s enjoy it while we can.